Zimbabwe has for years struggled with inefficient utilisation of public resources and corruption, which has become endemic as evidenced by several scandals that have been exposed recently.
This is happening despite legislation such as the Public Finance Management Act and the constitution of Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe also has a very efficient Office of the Auditor General (OAG), which publishes audits reports of government departments, local authorities and state owned enterprises.
According to the Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt and Development, “these reports serve as a crucial evaluation tool for internal control mechanisms within the public sector, providing users with relevant and reliable information about a reporting entity’s financial position and performance.”
The reports released by the OAG recently exposed serious inefficiencies and irregularities in various entities.
There were revelations that some government departments paid for cars that had not been delivered for over a year or overpaid for certain goods and services.
During the auditing process, the institutions that are found to be non-compliant are given an opportunity to respond and in some instances senior civil servants ignore the OAG.
The OAG reports that are tabled in Parliament are products of meticulous work and this is why they should be taken likely.
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A responsible government would be alarmed by such disclosures and take corrective measures, but not in Zimbabwe.
In a worrying development, Finance permanent secretary George Guvamatanga told a parliamentary committee last week that the OAG misdirected itself by revealing the issue of goods and service as well as cars that were not delivered.
Guvamatanga said the government had an internal auditing system that had already picked the issues. He appeared to be unhappy that the issues were put in the public dormain by the OAG.
Civil servants such as Guvamatanga need to understand that the OAG is a creature of the constitution, which must be allowed to carryout its mandate without fear or favour.
It exists to promote transparency in the utilisation of public funds and should never be muzzled by bureaucrats, who want to cover-up their own failures and in some instances brazen corruption.
Legislators should not have allowed him to literally get away with murder by trying to shoot the messenger instead of responding to the substantive issues raised in the audit reports.
Zimbabweans must take advantage of the OAG reports to push for transparency in public institutions and lobby for efficient utilisation of public funds.
